This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-264167, filed Aug. 31, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a specimen conveying system for selectively supplying specimens such as blood and urine, which are carried in by a specimen carry-in line, to a plurality of specimen is processing lines to perform a specific specimen process for the specimens.
2. Description of the Related Art
A prior art specimen conveying system includes a specimen carry-in line for carrying specimens such as blood into the system and a distribution line for distributing the specimens, which are carried in by the specimen carry-in line, to a plurality of specimen processing lines. The specimen processing lines perform a specific specimen process for the specimens distributed by the distribution line. The specimen processing lines include a biochemicals line, a blood line, a coagulation line, and a urine line.
The specimen carry-in line, distribution line, and specimen processing lines each have a relatively complicated conveying mechanism with a conveyor-belt type conveying lane. In particular, the distribution line has a special direction-change mechanism for each branch point; therefore, its conveying mechanism is more complicated. The prior art specimen conveying system is very complicated in its entirety.
In the prior art specimen conveying mechanism, a conveying line is considerably long because the specimen carry-in line is connected to each of the specimen processing lines by the distribution line. An operating passage, which crosses the conveying line, is blocked, thereby causing a problem that the entire specimen processing operation is decreased in efficiency.
An object of the present invention is to provide a specimen conveying system having the following advantages:
(a) The configuration of the whole system is simplified and the costs thereof are lowered.
(b) The operating passage that crosses the conveying line is secured and the entire specimen processing operation is improved in efficiency.
In order to attain the above object, the specimen conveying system according to the present invention has the following characteristic configuration. The other characteristic configurations will be clarified in the Detailed Description of the Invention later.
A specimen conveying system according to an aspect of the present invention selectively supplies specimens, which are carried in by a specimen carry-in line having conveyor-belt type conveying lane, to a plurality of specimen processing lines each having a conveyor-belt type conveying lane which perform respective specific processes for the specimens. The supply of the specimens to the specimen processing lines is performed using a motor vehicle whose running is controlled by running control means including a means for transmitting a command given from a host computer.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.